International Journal of Management and Enterprise Development (10 papers in press)

Regular Issues

• Aiming for a perceived partnership in relationship lending: a viable tool for differentiation in financial services?  
  by Lars Silver, Nicolaus Lundahl 
  Abstract: Technological advances, changed regulations and intense competition are a reality for service providers in various industries. For banks these changes have mostly served transactional approaches. In addition to being of crucial importance for the economy small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are important customers for banks. SMEs often perceive banks as standardized organizations offering identical products and services. Using concepts such as core services reliability, relational services reliability and customer satisfaction this study investigates whether aiming for a perceived partnership can be a viable differentiating tool for a service provider in a competitive environment consisting of increasingly larger and standardized institutions. The studys hypotheses were tested by use of structural equations modeling on questionnaire responses from 343 Swedish SMEs. The results suggest that service providers aiming for a relationship differentiating them from their competitors must, in addition to provide core services, focus on relationship building interactions.
  Keywords: Banking; SME; Customer satisfaction; Service marketing; Partnership; Relationship lending, Structural equations’ modeling, Sweden
   
• Psychological safety serves as mediator between persongroup fit and voice behavior  
  by Jen-Wei Cheng, Kuo-Ming Lu, Yu-Ha Cheung, Jyh-Huei Kuo 
  Abstract: Voice behavior researchers have mainly focused on examining the antecedents of voice behavior from personality and leadership style and have provided helpful insights. In the current study, we extend the previous studies on voice behavior from a fit perspective by explaining why and how persongroup fit leads to voice behavior and by investigating the mediating role of psychological safety. Empirical data for this research are collected from 173 subordinate-supervisor dyads from 10 firms in Taiwan. Hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to test our hypotheses. The survey results indicate that when subordinates perceive high levels of value congruency, employees voice behavior is enhanced via psychological safety. The present work provides new and deeper insights by strengthening the role of psychological safety.
  Keywords: person–group fit, psychological safety, voice behavior
   
• Institutional investors and immaterial investments:  
  by Hentati Fakher 
  Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to clear up the role of the institutional investors in the strategic decisions of the Tunisian companies. From the econometric tests applied to Tunisian data of panel in the period between 1999 and 2005, the results corroborate the assumptions of the entrenchment theory. The institutional investors seek the maximization of their profitability in the short run and they dont motivate to invest in the activities of research and development. They dont support the long-term growth of the company. They contribute little to the improvement of the system of corporate governance of the Tunisian companies.
  Keywords: Institutional investors- research and development - corporate governance.
   
• EMPLOYEES JOB SECURITY DURING ECONOMIC DOWNTURN  
  by Lucky Ossai-Igwe Esuh, Minai Mohd Sobri, Rahman Hamzah Addul 
  Abstract: This concept paper proposes a conceptual model of employees job security during economic downturn. Due to the turbulent global economy, natural resources are under strain, austerity cuts are threatening public sector jobs. Organizations are laying off their workforce in order to cope with the economic conditions. The future has become more unpredictable and uncertain about the workers keeping their jobs. The fear of losing their jobs in the midst of uncertainty becomes a great concern that needs an urgent attention. The question remains, should the organisations lay off their workforces? Or should the employees continue to holding on to their jobs in the midst of this economic turbulence? Based on this, the paper examined theoretical issue relating to employees job security in relation to economy downturn. It presents a conceptual model to examine employees job security during economic downturns, and further argued on the possibilities of employees holding on to their jobs during economic turbulent.
  Keywords: Job security, economy downturn, uncertainty, employee, employer
   
• An investigation of the role of Human resource diversity management on organizational citizenship behavior from organizational justice and commitment point of view in automotive industry in Iran  
  by Asghar Moshabaki, Fatemeh alsadat Madani, Hassan Ghorbani 
  Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to examine whether organizational justice perception and organizational commitment moderates the relationship between Diversity management and organizational citizenship behavior. The population of this survey includes all employees of 6 manufacturers in automotive industry. A total of 300 questionnaires were sent to a random sample of above mentioned population. The collected data was analyzed using LISREL which is a multivariate modeling technique Findings indicated that all six hypothesizes were confirmed and they showed that when effective diversity management practices exist in the areas of compensation, recruitment and selection, employees are likely to engage in more Organizational Citizenship behaviors.. The positive relationship between HRDM practices and organizational justice perception were confirmed. When a company effectively utilized diversity management practices, employees may perceive that decision processes are implemented on non-prejudicial factors, and accordingly, their sense of organizational justice will be enhanced. The positive effects on organizational commitment will be mediated by employees perception of organizational justice. The study has significant implications for managers and businesses, whom constantly striving to improve organizational performance through changing employee attitude and behavior. The results of the paper support the literature review, for example the suggestions of Magoshi & Channg (2009) and Kreitz, 2007 were confirmed. They showed that when a company effectively utilized diversity management practices, employees might perceive that decision processes are implemented on non-prejudicial factors, and accordingly, their sense of organizational justice will be enhanced.
  Keywords: Diversity management; Organizational justice; Organizational commitment; Organizational citizenship behavior.
   
• Knowledge Sharing in SMEs: Modeling the Barriers  
  by Apurva Anand, Ravi Kant, M. D. Singh 
  Abstract: Knowledge sharing is the foundation stone to knowledge-management (KM) implementation in Small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Some variables hinder knowledge sharing (KS) in the organizations. These variables are known as Knowledge Sharing barriers (KSBs). The objective of this paper is to identify the critical KSBs for SMEs and their mutual influences. Identification of KSBs which are at the root of the hierarchy (called driving KSBs) and those which are at the top of the hierarchy (called dependent KSBs) is the main aim of this research work. A questionnaire-based survey has been conducted to rank these KSBs. The results of the survey and the interpretive structural modeling (ISM) methodology have been used to evolve mutual relationships among these KSBs. It is observed that two KSBs, namely lack of top management commitment and KM is not well understood, have high driving power and therefore deserve serious attention. Arrangement of KSBs in a hierarchy and their categorization into driver and dependent categories is an exclusive effort in the area of KS. The study concludes with discussion and managerial implications.
  Keywords: Driving power, dependence power, interpretive structural modeling, knowledge management implementation, KSBs
   
• Identification of Important factors for Implementation of TQM in Indian SMEs in Context of Vidarbha and Khandesh Region  
  by Shyamkumar Kalpande, R. Gupta, Milind Dandekar 
  Abstract: This paper attempts to identify importance of factors and sub factors for the successful implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM) in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Vidarbha and Khandesh region in India. The study first investigates the critical factors and sub-factors that determine the adoption and successful implementation of TQM. Moreover, the evaluation weights are determined using analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The findings advocate that these enterprises would stress the basic TQM factors of organization and understanding of customer needs (CN), common understanding of quality (UQ) and use of team process (TP) are the most important factors. The results suggest a generic hierarchy model for organizations to prioritize the critical factors and formulate strategies for implementing TQM in Vidarbha and Khandesh, as well as other cities and regions in India.
  Keywords: Total quality management; Analytic hierarchy process, SMEs
   
• Managing the positive and negative characteristics of enterprise microblog to attract user to take action through the perspective of behavioral response
  by Tzong-Ru Lee, Jiun-Hung Lin, Wan-Chuen Liao, Ting-Hsiao Yeh 
   
• A Mean of Removals based Fuzzy MCDM Method for the Evaluation and Selection of Suppliers
  by Ta-Chung Chu 
   
• IT Governance Implementation Framework in Small and Medium Enterprise  
  by Lee Ming-chang 
  Abstract: IT governance mechanisms approach to facilitate associated decision process in large organization, but IT governance structures in small and medium enterprises (SEMs), is quit limited. SMEs tend to have an idiographic profile with characteristics that differs strongly from large business. SMEs tend to be slow adopters of IT but they do invest in strategic IS and face the challenges of adopting. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is assessing whether IT governance is applicable to SME. We studied literatures about IT governance and standards, SMEs and corporate governance. We results are created the framework of IT governance in SME and the implementing this framework. A case study for implementing the Framework is discussed
  Keywords: IT Governance, Small and Medium Enterprises, Corporate Governance